...Reporting Practices and Ethics Latarshia Jackson HCS 405 February 19, 2012 Conway Brew Reporting Practices and Ethics The misrepresentation of financial reports for any organization can bring about dire consequences. A financial accounting system provides insight into the company expectations and Many organizations depend on account management that works closely with organization management performance. Having effective management of accounting information, allows an organization to be able to evaluate a company's financial position, make appropriate use of resources, and plan on how to take the company forward in the future. Maintaining a precise and reliable financial statement is very necessary for fair financial reporting. Fair and accurate reporting allows for a company to catch any mistakes, fraud and theft that may be present. This also allows for a company to protect itself from any potential bankruptcy that may be present while also saving the company’s outcome for a potential bright future. If fair and factually account reporting does not happen it can lead to a misstatement of the company’s financial statement. This Paper will discuss the General Accepted Accounting Practices (GAAP) and the financial ethics associated with financial reporting. Financial management can be broken down into four basic elements which include planning, controlling, organizing and directing, and decision making. Although many individuals may stress planning, controlling, and decision...
Words: 1152 - Pages: 5
...Career Fair Mike Russell AIU Online Abstract Accurate accounting and the understanding can make or break your company or organization; not to mention possible jail time in the worse cases. The first way of ensuring accurate accounting is understanding the objectives. The second way is to understand the terminology of the accounting process and in the financial reporting aspects. The third way is to understand the ethics behind the accounting and reporting process. The forth way is to impement your role in the accounting process. Career Fair The primary objectives of accounting, basic terminology in the accounting process, the financial reporting, the ethics and the individual role each of us can play in the accounting process will be discussed in the following paragraphs. There are a multitude of things that happen at once but this will cover the basics for this career fair. Primary Objectives of Accounting There are a couple of ways businesses stay afloat by being financially stable and earning income. The process of financial information and conducting the financial record up keeping are vital to any organization, ensuring transparency of all information at the guidelines require you to prepare and produce them. The accounting cycle and the operating cycles are your intervals for reporting financial information. "This information is generally used by internal and external stakeholders to measure the organization's fiscal health" (M.U.S.E. Accounting Principles...
Words: 1113 - Pages: 5
...Reporting Practices and Ethics Yolanda Jones HCS/405 March 10, 2014 Darlene Tomlinson Page Break Reporting Practices and Ethics The healthcare industry is a rapidly growing segment of the U.S. economy, amounting to over $2.1 trillion annually. Healthcare focuses on diagnosis, treatment, and prevention among other things. Health care makes up one sixth of the U.S. GDP it is the largest source of the nation's public expenditures. With large amounts of revenue going in and out of hospitals and facilities and health care reform accounting can be challenging. To help ensure fair and accurate financial reporting, there are practices and ethical standards that must be followed when accounting for finances in health care. This paper will provide the four elements of financial management and standard accounting principles and ethics. Financial Reporting Practices The Financial Accounting Standards Board was established in 1073. It is the designated organization in the private sector that establishes standards of financial accounting for nongovernmental entities. The standards established are officially recognized as authoritative by the SEC and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. The FASB also has accounting standards for health care entities. "The AICPA Health Care Expert Panel developed technical guidance on the application in consolidated financial statements of a recent accounting standards update for health care entities"...
Words: 1309 - Pages: 6
...Final Project: Solving Ethical Dilemmas in the Accounting Profession November 4, 2011 ACC/260 Dan’s Dilemmas In this assignment we will evaluate the ethical dilemmas of Daniel Potter. Dan is an accountant at Baker Greenleaf. He has been assigned a special audit in which his dilemmas occur. We will discuss many factors that led to the issues Dan is facing. We will describe the dilemmas and give a step-by-step account of how a solution can be reached. Background: While studying for the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) exam, Dan paid close attention to the professional guidelines and code of ethics for accountants. Being of a religious background, ethics was a particularly firm belief for him. He took pride in knowing about ethical situations that could make decisions difficult. Dan also understood that the professional guidelines were to be used as a tool to help in the decision-making process. He believed strongly that “every independent auditor was obligated to maintain professional integrity, if what he believed to be the best economic system in the world was to survive” (Brooks, 2007, p. 285). Baker was receiving a new assignment for a special audit, which was shared with another “Big Eight accounting firm” (Brooks, 2007, p. 286). If all went according to plan, Baker Greenleaf hoped to obtain the account exclusively. The company assigned the best in the company to prepare the audit. Dan was on of the team members chosen. A special one year promotion...
Words: 1555 - Pages: 7
...ETHICS AND THE ROLE OF ACCOUNTANTS According to (Finn, 1994) ethical behaviour is a base which is required in the accounting profession to provide a proper and professional service to a client who just relies on the information provided by the accountant. This helps to build a reputation and in as well in the eyes of the client that the accountant is reliable and adds to their degree of trustworthiness for the client. The reason it has become so important to monitor the ethical behaviour of accountants is because of the recent scandals by corporate and accounting firms like Enron and WorldCom as mentioned by (Chan, 2006). It was further mentioned that ethical problems are a part of any business due to the interaction of the accountants with so many people with different interests that it leads to conflict of interests. Many different people have different views about ethics. The basic meaning of ethics is the authority of custom and tradition (Svensson, 2003). It was further stated that ethics is more of a mix of philosophical thoughts over a period of time as compared to being a fixed concept and each culture has its own norm of what is acceptable and what is not. Another view point by (Duska, 2011) stated that ethics is related to analysing what is right in the eyes of the person and the law. It consists of a set of moral principles that vary between individuals that distinguish between good or bad. While some of the ethical behaviour is implied, the professional framework...
Words: 1629 - Pages: 7
...Answers Professional Level – Essentials Module, Paper P2 (INT) Corporate Reporting (International) 1 (a) Angel Group Statement of cash flows for the year ended 30 November 2013 Profit for the year (W1) Adjustments to operating activities Financial assets – profit on sale (W5) Retirement benefit expense (W7) Depreciation (W1) Profit on sale of PPE (W1) Associate’s profit (W3) Impairment of goodwill and intangible assets (26·5 + 90) (W6) Finance costs Movements in working capital Decrease in trade receivables (180 – 125 + 3) Decrease in inventories (190 – 155 + 6) Decrease in trade payables (361 – 155 + 4) Cash generated from operating activities Cash paid to retirement benefit scheme (W7) Interest paid Income taxes paid (W4) Net cash generated by operating activities Cash flows from investing activities Sale of financial assets (W5) Purchase of financial assets Purchase of property, plant and equipment (PPE) (W1) Cash grant for PPE (W1) Purchase of subsidiary (30 – 2) (W2) Proceeds from sale of PPE (W1) Dividend received from associate (W3) Purchase of associate (W3) Net cash flows used by investing activities Cash flows from financing activities Proceeds of issue of share capital Repayment of long-term borrowings Dividends paid Non-controlling interest dividend Net cash generated by financing activities Net increase in cash and cash equivalents Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of period Cash and cash equivalents at end of period Workings Working 1 Property, plant and...
Words: 5850 - Pages: 24
...Accounting for Enron 1. As a partner to the firm, David Duncan had the responsibility to maintain a clean name for his auditing firm. He was supposed to apply his knowledge and wisdom to market his firm but failed to do so. As an auditor to Enron, he ought to have given a true and fair value of the company’s accounting records. He was also supposed give his expert views on the various financial huddle facing the company. Furthermore, he had a duty to report the company’s true and fair value to stockholders according to the records he audited. As an auditor and accountant, Duncan is required to maintain ethical behavior and act professionally. This means that he should be independent and truthful always. 2. A corporate attorney should always ensure that the client is not involved in fraudulent activities. They are also required not to engage in any unlawful acts in the name of protecting their client. Ethics require corporate lawyers to withhold from acts that may hinder justices. 3. When an employee is sure of illegal activities that are likely to jeopardize the company’s existence undertaken by the employer, they can always blow a whistle. She owed loyalty to investors since they were the ones who run the company. Without investor, the company could not have existed and so could have been to her job. 4. The board of directors is involved in the management of the company. They are responsible and answerable to stockholders since they are appointed agents to act on...
Words: 414 - Pages: 2
...------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- College of Business, Hospitality and Tourism Studies ------------------------------------------------- Department of Accounting ACC601 – Corporate Accounting Trimester 2, 2012 Research Assignment 2, (10%) Instructions: ( For Education students only) Note * This assignment is to be carried out in groups of three. * Students are required to choose only one topic, and write a research report, based on the format given. * The assignment must comply with normal academic requirements. Refer to the course outline and regulation concerned with plagiarism and copying! * The assignment is out of 10 marks and carries a weighting of 10% towards the overall assessment. * Hard copy & soft assignments must be submitted on or before 24th July 2012. Your written assignment submission format * Cover page – ID# and full name of group members * Acknowledgement declaration (if any interviews conducted) * Abstract / Value of research ½ page * Your research topic / company * why you choose a particular company/ topic – Rationale/ value of research * Methodology of obtaining research information 1page * Quantitative/ and qualitative analysis * Introduction1page * What is your topic and briefly discuss about that topic(aims & objectives) * Literature reviews 2pages...
Words: 407 - Pages: 2
...IFRS: FASB and IASB Fair value measurements provide users of financial statements with an accurate picture of the value of a company’s assets. Both IFRS and GAAP require firms to include information regarding fair value measurement practices in the notes of financial statements. Under either system, companies will be required to report assets at either book value or fair value, depending on the situation. As a general rule of thumb, all assets in the same class must receive the same valuation treatment. In regards to the value of receivables, IRFS uses a two- tiered method that first analyzes individual receivables, and then looks at receivables as whole to determine if there is any impairment. Basic accounting and reporting issues related to recognition and measurement of receivables, allowance accounts, recording discounts, the allowance method to account for bad debt and factoring are pretty much all the same between GAAP and IFRS. However, IASB (International Accounting Standards Board) and FASB (Financial Accounting Standards Board) are taking steps by working to implement fair value measurement, the amount they currently could be sold for, for financial instruments. The FASB and IASB are facing opposition from various factors thus have adopted a piecemeal approach. Step one is to disclose the fair value information in the notes, and second step is the fair market option which permits companies to record some type of financial instrument at fair value in financial statements...
Words: 9113 - Pages: 37
...According on that, there are facing dilemma of truth in accounting between justification of standard setting and justification of auditing. Difference researcher, have a difference opinion. According to Macintosh (2002), decision usefulness as defined by FASB is myth and truthfulness as defined by AICPA is a reality. Another researcher, Moore (2009) characterized the economic reality the FASB set out to show a myth. Other than that, Williams and Ravenscroft (2010) argue that decision usefulness as defined by FASB is since there is no way to any standard actually improves the prediction of cash flows. That is no empirical means is available to standard-setters to prove predictive ability either for any individual decision makers or for any mechanical method of economic prediction. Unlike standard-setting, auditing is the act of attesting to the veracity of something, an evidentiary process analogous to the legal process of gathering evidence to establish the ‘‘facts of the case.’’ Some countries use the term “truth” in their auditors’ reports. According to Myddelton (1995), under UK Companies Act, United Kingdom used “true and correct” from 1879 to 1947 and they changed to “true and fair view” after that. According to Chastney (1975), for Australia, they have used “true and fair” since issuance of the Financial Corporation Act of 1974. After a detailed comparison between many countries, a report shows that many problems occurred in implementing a term whether they should use...
Words: 1279 - Pages: 6
...NIIT University | Ethics in Finance | | | Aman Sawhney | | | Contents Introduction 1 Why Ethics Matters 1 Ethics and Ethical Dilemma 2 Creating an Ethical Environment 3 Reasons for Unethical Behavior 4 Ethical issues in Finance 4 Financial Statement 5 Fictitious Revenues 5 Off-balance Sheet Financing 5 Hidden Reserves 5 Hostile Takeovers 6 Insider Trading 6 Introduction Ethics in general is concerned with human behavior that is acceptable or "right" and that is not acceptable or "wrong" based on conventional morality. General ethical norms encompass truthfulness, honesty, integrity, respect for others, fairness, and justice. They relate to all aspects of life, including business and finance. Financial ethics is, therefore, a subset of general ethics. Ethical norms are essential for maintaining stability and harmony in social life, where people interact with one another. Recognition of others' needs and aspirations, fairness, and cooperative efforts to deal with common issues are, for example, aspects of social behavior that contribute to social stability. In the process of social evolution, we have developed not only an instinct to care for ourselves but also a conscience to care for others. There may arise situations in which the need to care for ourselves runs into conflict with the need to care for others. In such situations, ethical norms are needed to guide our behavior. As Demsey (1999) puts it: "Ethics represents the attempt...
Words: 2682 - Pages: 11
...Accounting ethics is primarily a field of applied ethics and is part ofbusiness ethics and human ethics, the study of moral values and judgments as they apply to accountancy. It is an example of professional ethics. Accounting introduced by Luca Pacioli, and later expanded by government groups, professional organizations, and independent companies. Ethics are taught in accounting courses at higher education institutions as well as by companies training accountants and auditors. Due to the diverse range of accounting services and recent corporate collapses, attention has been drawn to ethical standards accepted within the accounting profession.[2] These collapses have resulted in a widespread disregard for the reputation of the accounting profession.[3] To combat the criticism and prevent fraudulent accounting, various accounting organizations and governments have developed regulations and remedies for improved ethics among the accounting profession. ------------------------------------------------- Importance of ethics The nature of the work carried out by accountants and auditors requires a high level of ethics. Shareholders, potential shareholders, and other users of the financial statements rely heavily on the yearly financial statements of a company as they can use this information to make an informed decision about investment.[4] They rely on the opinion of the accountants who prepared the statements, as well as the auditors that verified it, to present a true and fair...
Words: 5921 - Pages: 24
...Xerox Corporation 1 Accounting Ethical Breaches at Xerox Corporation Taiwan Byrd Xerox Corporation 2 Accounting Ethical Breaches at Xerox Corporation Some of the largest accounting frauds in history occurred in the last several years leading to the well-known scandals in the accounting industry. During the early 2000’s accounting scandals were at the forefront of most business circles and rising to an all-time high in record number of cases being reported (Erickson). This raised the public to question and ask one major question are these scandals of fraud directly linked to the lack of ethics in these company or are they just honest mistakes that need to be fixed. Today businesses have made tremendous strides towards cleaning up the scandals. Businesses today have implemented programs that give the public, stockholders, and investors the belief that they want to take the right steps towards improving this negative environment inside major corporations around the world. The company I have chosen to take a more in-depth look at its ethical breaches and the improvements they have made to improve on those breaches is the famous and most illustrious Xerox Corporation. Xerox was cited for what we would call a major infraction back in the early 2000’s for some of their accounting practices in the late 1990’s. Xerox faced with hard competition from up and rising foreign markets and losing a portion of their core small copier business to desktop...
Words: 1280 - Pages: 6
...Why are Certified Public Accountants Important to the Accounting Industry, and why their role is Important to Business, Industry, and Society? Virginia Commonwealth University Writing and Rhetoric April 15, 2011 Why are Certified Public Accountants Important to the Accounting Industry, and why their role is Important to Business, Industry, and Society? CPAs became prominent after the 1800s when America started into the industrial era. They mainly did the basic bookkeeping for businesses at that time. As the industrial age grew and the government started to impose taxes, CPAs became more important to businesses as they now had to handle the filing of taxes for businesses. Although many people don’t see how important CPAs are to business, industry, and the economy, as well as, society. With the many changes over the centuries that government and CPA societies have put on CPAs, there have been some big changes in educational requirements, as well as governmental regulations. But in today’s society ethics has become the biggest problem that CPAs have to deal with and yet have more control over in the economy, and especially in business and industry. History has shown just how business and industry has needed CPAs, from controlling payroll and taxes, auditing accounting journals at the local mom-and-pop stores, to auditing financial papers of big corporations in order to let the investors at banks and Wall Street have some sort of an...
Words: 4316 - Pages: 18
...Lowes Companies – Ethics and Compliance Ethics and compliance within a company’s financial environment is crucial to long term success as well as gaining investors’ and employees’ trust. When an organization demands ethical behavior from it entire workforce, compliance and adherence to various important standards is a much easier task to obtain. This type of environment creates better relationships with shareholders, employees and customers. This behavior also passes savings on to customers and higher dividends to shareholders. Lowes Companies sets this type of expectation throughout its organization. This steadfast dedication to diligent, honest work is apparent when reviewing Lowes annual reports and code of ethics. With dedication to shareholder value, Lowes vows improvement to financial performance by 2015 in its 2011 annual report by implementing the vision, Never Stop Improving™. This promise to shareholders as well as the openness of the company’s financial information shows that Lowes holds ethics and compliance in a high regard from the company’s employees in stores to the workforce on the corporate level. Lowes code of ethics acts as a guideline for any employees who make decisions within the company. Lowes believes in holding its employees to a high standard of integrity and professionalism ("Lowes Companies Code Of Ethics", 2012). When it comes to high standards and the importance of accurate record keeping in the financial environment, Lowes outlines its expectations...
Words: 1563 - Pages: 7
